To mark Neurodiversity Celebration week, we have been speaking to one of our colleagues, 111 Triage Clinician Amy Anderson, about her experiences and her role as part of our Neurodiversity Network.
Amy was diagnosed with ADHD in November 2024 and is also Perimenopausal, speaking openly about it with her manager to ensure we could make reasonable adjustments to enable her to flourish at work. Here’s what she told us…
“I joined DHU in 2022 as a Clinical Advisor from Yorkshire Ambulance Service, taking on my current role a year later. Last year I experienced difficulties with stress and anxiety, it was around that time that I received my ADHD diagnosis. To be honest, it was a relief as it helped me to understand what was affecting me and enabled me to discuss it in more depth with my manager during my return-to-work discussion.
“My diagnosis has helped me to better understand myself. I struggle to concentrate for long periods of time, processing information is difficult, I find it hard to explain myself and interrupt people a lot. My time management is terrible, I overthink basic tasks and forget things if they’re not written down. I am quite restless, struggle to sit still for any period of time and my mood fluctuates very quickly from elated to flat.
“These are symptoms have led to me becoming very easily overwhelmed, I find it hard to switch off and my busy brain becomes very tired very quickly, affecting my concentration. To other people I’m sure I can be frustrating and I’m conscious of that, but I want people to understand me so it’s important to understand myself.
“I can’t thank my manager enough. I feel heard, she understands when I say that I don’t want to mask my disability, and it is a hidden disability, or feel guilty about how I think others might perceive me at work. It’s now formally documented which means if my performance is affected by my ADHD, we can talk about how to make it better. We’ve made reasonable adjustments, things like longer call lengths, unscheduled breaks and increased admin time for me to read and digest emails, it all adds up to make a big difference.
“I’m now on medication which helps but it doesn’t make my ADHD go away. When I heard about the Neurodiversity Network that will shape how DHU supports people like me with a hidden disability or neurodiverse condition, I wanted to be involved. It’s opened a door for me to use my knowledge and experience of this condition to help others and make it easier for them to recognise and understand themselves.
“People can often say things that suggest they don’t think my condition is really a disability or even a problem, but that’s part of the problem. When you live it day in and day out, trust me, it’s difficult. I’m fortunate to feel supported; I want others to feel the same and know that talking about it is the key to understanding your condition and overcoming the challenge.”